At CES today we saw what at first resembles a Cooler Master V6 CPU heastink and fan combo. The processor cooler features a red 120mm fan housed in a black shroud which is then attached to the heatsink itself. The heatsink is a tower design with six copper heatpipes attached to a copper CPU block. The heatpipes then lead into a tower of aluminum fins to dissipate heat.

On the back of the unit; however, there's a little something extra in the form of a nano-itx motherboard and AMD E-350 APU based on the Brazos platform. The computer is self contained and provides a number of connectivity options. For more information on the Brazos platform and E-350 APU, see our preview and review articles. A quick run down of the E-350 specifications; however, is below.

Two Bobcat CPU cores at 1.6 GHz

A Radeon HD 6310 GPU with 80 processing cores running at 500 MHz

A TDP of 18 watts

DirectX 11 Graphics and DDR3 Memory Support

The bottom of the rear of the CPU cooler is the location of the nano-ITX motherboard's rear IO panel. The motherboard features Wi-Fi, HDMI, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, VGA(?), and e-SATA(?) connections.

A side view of the Cooler Master heatsink is available below.

It's certainly a new idea, and it will definitely hit home for people that don't need or want to run their power hungry main desktop all the time. Because the system is self contained it does present some usability issues. Mainly that you will need to have a KVM or VNC connection to control it and the inside of the computer case is going to become a lot more crowded with cables. Further, it would be a pain to have to open up the main desktop system just to plug in a flash drive or cable. On the other hand, it'd make for a nice media or file server and would not require the desktop be on 24/7 without needing yet another box crowding my desk so I'd give it a shot. (The inside of my computer case is already a mess of wires so what do I have to lose?)

An aspiring overclocker and Coolaler forum go-er "u48802109" got his/her hands on an engineering sample and set out to see just how far he could push the upcoming Intel Core i7 2700K processor using air cooling. In an exciting result, the overclocker was able to achieve a stable 5 GHz overclock on the 2700K with a 100 MHz bus speed and 50x multiplier. Even more amazing are the voltage and temperature results (keeping in mind that we don't know the particular HSF being used) of the overclock. Specifically, they were able to hit 5 GHz with 1.384 V and hit a maximum temperature of 65 C.

A zoomed in look at the CPU-Z readout.

While air cooling may not be able to support going to much higher frequencies, water cooling could certainly open up even more headroom in the chip. Also, keeping in mind that these are engineering samples, it will be interesting to see where the Core i7 2700K falls once it starts rolling out to consumers. If these results hold out, it does seem like it may just be worth it to pay a few extra bucks and eschew the 2600K for new builds. What are your thoughts, are these results encouraging to you? You can see the full overclocking results here.

Corsair has released two new sealed loop water coolers dubbed the Corsair H40 and H70 Core that are aimed at budget builds and enthusiasts who prefer to provide their own fans. These new models, like their predecessors, are compatible with both AMD and Intel sockets and will have mounting hardware, the cooler itself, and a illustrated quick start guide that the company claims will be helpful during setup. As the coolers use a somewhat odd mounting ring system, photo illustrations can indeed be helpful (as I learned when setting up my own H70).

The new budget H40 water cooler

The H40 is Corsair’s new budget sealed loop water cooler, replacing the H50 as the company’s entry level cooler. It features an aluminum radiator able to accommodate up to two 120mm fans (one 2000rpm 120mm fan is included). The radiator connects to the water block via flexible black tubing, and the cold plate is also composed of aluminum (versus the H70’s copper base plate). It includes mounting hardware to support all the latest AMD and Intel sockets up to AMD’s FM1 and Intel’s socket 1155.

The H70 Core (or CORE if you prefer Corsair’s all caps nomenclature) is a retooled H70 water cooling product that eschews the fans in favor of a slightly cheaper retail price. Further, by selling the H70 without fans, enthusiasts are able to purchase (or reuse) their own fans. The H70 CORE water cooler itself is the same as the previous 70, and features a 38mm thick aluminum radiator connected by sealed flexible tubing with a copper cold plate. The radiator can accommodate two 120mm fans and the device is compatible with both Intel and AMD CPU (Processor) sockets.

The H70 without bundled fans is a sealed water cooler that many enthusiasts have been asking Corsair for for a long time, and it’s good to see the company responding to requests. The H40 may well be a decent option for a quiet, low power HTPC. The H40 carries and MSRP of $59 USD while the H70 CORE has an MSRP of $89 USD. The H70 with bundled fans retails for around $95 USD, so it will be interesting to see where the H70 CORE will fan in retail and whether it will provide a good value. Both sealed loop water coolers will be available worldwide later this month.

We reported a few days ago that AMD is considering bunding a sealed loop water cooling solution with it's high end FX processors. In an interesting development, VR-Zone today stated that Intel will not be including any cooler at all with it's Sandy Bridge-E parts.

Specifically, Intel will not be bundling any processor cooler with its Core i7 Sandy Bridge-E 3820, 3930, or 3960X CPUs. These processors are rated at a 130 watt TDP; however, VR-Zone reports that the processors may in fact be drawing as much as 180 watts at stock speeds. This massive jump in power compared to previous models, if true, would make Intel's move to not include a cooler a good thing, as enthusiasts will almost certainly want a quality third part air cooler at least, and a proper water loop if any overclocking is involved. Enthusiasts especially have always opted to use an aftermarket cooler instead of the included Intel one as they have been notoriously noisy and mediocre in the performance department. While they are decent for stock speeds, overclockers have always demanded more than the Intel coolers could provide.

The situation is made all the more interested when paired against AMD's announcement; Intel has opted to not include any heatsink at all while AMD has opted to ratchet up the cooling performance with a sealed water loop. Personally, I find the two companies' reactions- because they are almost direct opposite solutions- very intersting and telling about the company mindset. Which solution do you like more, would you like the chip makers to ratchet up their stock cooling performance, or do you prefer the hands-off approach where they allow you to grab the cooler of your choice by not bundling anything in the processor box? Let us know in the comments!

We talked about the Corsair H80 (and H100) all in one water coolers in a previous post as they were announced a few months ago; however, it seems that they are finally out in the wild and ready for review. Neoseeker has the review ball today and has posted a concise five page review of the device. Forunately, from their testing it seems to stack up well compared to its predecessors, though the review does note that the fan noise can become rather loud.

"...the H80 also includes the same easy to use mounting system as the H60. This was one of the aspects we liked the most about the H60, so we are more than pleased to see it return with this new unit. The low-profile block and 120mm radiator will allow the Corsair H80 to fit into nearly any chassis, with the only exceptions being some of the smaller HTPC cases."

PCCooler OC3, a company not widely known of outside of China due to limited worldwide distribution, had its fair showing at Computex 2011 where the company showed off a new CPU cooler.

The new W120 cooler at first glance appears to be another modern tower style air cooler; however, it has a feature that the other cooler lack. Namely, the W120 supports both air and water cooling. When used as an air cooler, the W120 acts as one would expect, and a 120mm fan moves air across aluminum fins that are connected via (six) heat pipes to a copper base plate that transfers heat away from the processor.

When hooked into an existing water cooling loop; however, the tower cooler acts as a water block as well as assisting in dispersing heat via the fins and 120mm fan. The company claims that when the cooler is used in this fashion, it is capable of dissipating up to 500 watts of power-- much more than any current CPU can deliver even when heavily overclocked.

It’s certainly an interesting design, and if the company’s claim hold merit, this cooler is likely to be popular among overclockers if the price is right. Unfortunately, enthusiasts in the US are not likely to see this any time soon. You can see more pictures of the cooler; however, over at EXPreview.

Image copyright 2011 EXPreview. Used under fair usage guidelines for purposes of commentary and reporting.

"Any time you expose the atmosphere to something cold you run the risk that water in the air will begin to condense. Common forms of condensation would be an icy windshield, water on a cold can of Pepsi, and even the frost in your freezer. The only way to prevent condensation is to insulate against it."